Climate Action Days: EU Sustainability Laws Fundamentals: Beyond CSRD, CSDDD, EU Taxonomy

Workshop Description

This one-hour interactive workshop introduces the fundamentals of EU sustainability compliance and explains why it is the real foundation of sustainability reporting.

While public debate often focuses on headline regulations such as CSRD, CSDDD and the EU Taxonomy, more than 50 EU sustainability laws and directives underpin the European Green Deal. Many of these are sectorspecific and directly shape how companies operate. Understanding them is increasingly a make-or-break factor for business success.

The session starts with the essentials: what sustainability compliance really means, why it matters for companies, and how EU legislation drives sustainable development in practice. Participants will gain an overview of the European Green Deal, its objectives, and how EU laws support climate action at both EU and Member State level.

We will also explore how EU legislative procedures work, how to navigate official EU information sources, and how to identify relevant sector-specific regulations. A practical case study will show participants how to interpret EU legal texts and translate them into concrete business action.

A key focus of the workshop is accessibility. Today, many companies rush into expensive sustainability consulting without understanding the fundamentals, costing the European economy billions of euros each year. 

Strengthening basic knowledge of EU sustainability laws is essential to improve resource efficiency and make sustainability expertise more widely available.

In the final part, we look to the future of compliance. Participants will discover how AI and LLM-powered tools can support sustainability professionals, reduce manual workload, and enable smarter, more efficient compliance processes. The session connects sustainability, digitalisation and value creation, showing how compliance can become a strategic advantage rather than a burden.

The format is practical and discussion-oriented, and no prior knowledge is required.

Agenda (1 hour)

1. Introduction – Why compliance matters (10 minutes)

• What sustainability compliance really means
• Why it is the foundation of sustainability reporting

2. The EU Green Deal and the legal landscape (10 minutes)

• Objectives of the European Green Deal
• How EU laws support climate and sustainability goals

3. Beyond CSRD and the EU Taxonomy (15 minutes)

• Overview of 50+ EU sustainability laws
• Sector-specific regulations and real business impact

4. Hands-on case study (15 minutes)

• How to navigate EU legal sources
• Understanding and interpreting EU legislation in practice

5. The future of compliance (10 minutes)

• AI and digital tools for sustainability professionals
• Turning compliance into value creation